Driving the hills in TN...

So today starts out slow. I get a phone call that one of the children isn't at school today. Freak out and call and ask if they found them or if I should go out looking. All is well, kid went to the bathroom during attendance and forgot to let someone know.

Then I decide that I am going to try to find my new grocery store, Prichard's. I get a flier in the mail every week. The headline always shows the dates of the sale and under it it says, "Jesus Saves!"

Now, I had a couple of thoughts when I saw that. Does Jesus only save for that week? Does Jesus save, but everyone else pays full price? No, it is just a nice little grocery store that loves Jesus. There is gospel music playing and everyone is friendly and helpful. It was a nice grocery, where Jesus Saves! It is smaller than Walmart but larger than the little grocery in town. It's down the road a ways in the other direction that I am most familiar with.

So, instead of blindly driving there today, I decide to call. I have looked for this grocery twice and have gotten a little turned around each time. I call the store and explain that I am new to the area and I would like to know where they are located. Here's part of the conversation:

"Well, go down Sparta toward Smithville..."

Wait! I am new to the area, I don't know where Smithville is! I've just moved here from Wisconsin. I'm coming from Watertown.

"Well, go out onto the street and come toward Alexandria and just keep going past the old store..."

I don't know where the old store is.

"Oh, well, go down Sparta toward Alexandria and look for the Dollar General, then turn left and you can't miss us."

Needless to say, I needed better directions. So, I thought well, I have to go into town to go to the post office and to the bank, so I will stop in and say hi to Jim at the antique shop and he'll be able to give me directions.

So, I get into my car and think, do I want to take a right into town or go around town? I decide to go around town. Then I realize that the post office and the bank are IN town. I just crack myself up sometimes, at least I am never bored having me around.

Well, get the duties done, crack Jim up at the antique shop, and get directions to the grocery.

I start on my way and I am pretty confident that with Jim's directions, I won't get too lost this time. I also know that if I go missing for too long, Jim knows where I am lost at.

The grocery store is opposite the way to Lebanon which is the direction to go to Walmart and such where I took all of the beautiful pictures. The road to Alexandria is even more beautiful, if you can believe it.

There are curves and hills in the road and there is one curve that goes up the hill and when you get to the top and start to curve back down the trees break open and as far as my eyes could see there were trees and hills and green and it was so beautiful and I was so happy to be in Tennessee and I put my hand up and out of the car like I was on a roller coaster and started to whoop for joy at living where it is so beautiful, that I can go to the grocery store and see this splendor all of the time and all of a sudden my car door swings wide open into oncoming traffic!!!!

The latch wasn't working properly on my door. I'm almost to the grocery store, so I figured I'd take a look at it when I got there. I get there and it looks like the latch spring is gone, so I fiddled with it and got it to close.

Go shopping. I am in the grocery store for about an hour. When I come out, it is POURING!! My seats are wet, I am wet, I get loaded up and head home, with my flannel jacket wrapped through the handle of my door and sitting on it so the door won't fling open again, but I have to leave the windows open because I have to be able to catch the door if it moves again and it is now a sauna in Tennessee.

Ahhh, the hills and stories of Tennessee!

Some things I've learned about Tennessee in a week...

If you want to get things done, do it before 7AM or after 10PM cuz it's just too darn hot.

If you want to get things done on Monday, start on the Tuesday before...

If you have to go somewhere during the day, that will be the time the cable installers will be out.

If you have errands to run, they are at least 15 minutes away.

The police station answers the water department's phone when they are at lunch.

Nextel/Sprint won't work at home, but it will work a block away. If you are driving you will lose signal because of the mountains. How come??? Aren't the satellite's in space? How are mountains interferring with that???

Tennessee is pretty no matter where you look.

From the air it looks like fields of broccoli, from the ground it feels like a roller coaster--up, down, up, down, sideways, in, out, up, down...

If you want to unpack boxes of books, the bookshelves will be wobbly and you will have packed your hammer elsewhere...

If you want to cook something, you will realize that either you don't have it, or you forgot to pick it up, or that the utensil or pan is packed somewhere and you have no idea where it is.

If you want to watch a movie, you will open all of your boxes that are labeled DVD'S and discover that you did not pack all of your movies in one of those boxes marked DVD'S, in fact you packed DVD's all over the place, apparently whatever room you found the dvd in that is where you packed it. AND, it's the DVD you want to watch that is missing...

Tennessee in the morning and the evening smells like a forest after the rain.

There are a million (I think that's the actual number) of state parks with hiking trails in TN.

Okay, so I am sure that I will have lots and lots of interesting things I learn about TN in the next seven days...